A day after handily becoming the MPP-elect for London West, the NDP’s Peggy Sattler says she’s ready to get to work.
The excitement may have faded, but Sattler says she’s feeling great after taking the riding with 41.9 per cent of the vote.
“I want to bring a voice to the people of London West. They haven’t been represented by an MPP for six months since Chris Bentley vacated the seat. I suspect there’s a lot of constituency work that has piled up.”
Sattler beat PC candidate Ali Chahbar by over 3,000 votes and Liberal candidate Ken Coran was a distant third place finisher.
Coran, the former teachers’ union head who was hand-picked by the premier, likely took the toughest hit.
Asked after his defeat if he was the wrong candidate, Coran said “I don’t think so. What people want is someone who’s hard-working, someone who’s got a skill set that will represent their values. And you know based on our campaign, the people in this room, they all believe that.”
But Chahbar said voters were asking for change and got it.
“When we see the result tonight, I think the Liberals were in third place, so it does speak to the fact that they were tired of the Liberal government and there was that change. Something was in the air. Unfortunately it didn’t come our way this time.”
Still Chahbar managed to narrow the margin of loss in his second attempt at the seat.
As for Sattler, she concedes that many voters believe the NDP is not fiscally responsible and hopes to help change that notion before the next general election.
“It was the New Democrats who pushed for a financial accountability office,” Sattler says.
She will likely be officially sworn in as a Member of Provincial Parliament in the next few weeks.
